Reviews by Budinetz:

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Poured from 12 oz. bottle into KBS snifter, bottled in 2013. Bottle stored in cellar then briefly refrigerated prior to opening. Pours a beautiful jet black and forms a two inch foamy head that's beige in color. The head ultimately settles into a thin ring around the glass.

The nose is French roast coffee and milk chocolate, quite inviting. There's also a strong roasted malt aroma, followed by a spicy presence that hints of nutmeg. The taste is quite similar to its nose, bitter mocha, sweet molasses and roasted malt, fudge and spicy (chile ancho and nutmeg).

The mouthfeel of this beer is quite pleasant, almost no carbonation present which in my opinion helps savour the beer even better.

Overall - very excited to discover this beer, its quite enjoyable and hides the 10% ABV extremely well. Its sweet yet no overwhelmingly so and all of its flavors are well balanced. (879 characters)

'01-'02: Pours perfectly black with a beautiful deep tan head. The head is slow to form and disspipates quickly however. The Aroma is chocolate, espresso, burnt toast with a bit of fruitiness that makes it seem like the burnt toast has jelly or jam on it. The aroma floods the nose and starts the salivary glands. Burnt toast flavor and a thin bitterness from the hops dominate early on switching to espresso and unsweetened black chocolate later on and a lingering, bitter finish. That's while cold. When closer to room temperature the flavors mellow with the sharp burnt and espresso bitterness become less sharp sliding under a sweeter more chocolately taste. Mouthfeel is slightly oily, but not as thick or gritty as some other imperials. One of the lighter beers of the style. (781 characters)

Pours an extremely dark brown to black in the glass with a thick, creamy, tan froth that, unfortunately, dissipates somewhat quickly...great lacing! The nose is VERY pretty with sweet, almost dessert like, aromas of dutch chocolate, milk chocolate, soft banana, brown sugar, light molasses, black raspberries, dark fruit, vanilla, & subtle espresso. This beer smells awesome! Sweet, but not too sweet flavors of chocolate, banana, molasses, roasted barley, & roasted coffee show through a long finish with a clear citrus/slightly pine bitter hop finish.(necessary for awesome balance) Great, creamy carbonation. Overall, this is an amazing beer that is extremely smooth...esp. for a 10% abv beer. There is a definite warmth to this beer, but I'd never guess that this is a 10% beer...again...very smooth. A must try! (871 characters)

Pours a deep,dark black with a nice almond colored head that leaves great lacing,the aroma is very coffeeish and slightly bitter sweet.A real nice complesx beer starts out somewhat earhty and coffeish with a dried fruit flavor comin thru and a hint of dryness in the finish.Very complex,a masterpiece of a beer. (311 characters)

This bottle poured a dark black with only a small, tan head. The aging seems to have taken away some of the carbonation. The nose was very nice and highlighted by obviosuly chocolate hints, although subtle. The taste is where this beer makes its mark: A puff of semi-sweet chocolate off the top that turns only slightly bitter towards the end of the sip. A decadent chalky cocoa follows and the combination lingers long and pleasantly. Coffee bean undertones & roasted malts. Mouthfeel was exceptional. Although the pour revealed little carbonation, the body was lively enough to offer up some fresh mouthfeel and mix in a creaminess off the back end. I don't have a newer bottle of this beer to compare it to but this aged bottle is simply outstanding. Superb in every aspect. (842 characters)

Smell  This is as roasty as it gets. The malts and chocolate are super-dark, reflecting the color of the ale. I can actually pick up several types of chocolate here, a fine dark style being the most prominent. The roasted malts are burnt and lovely, showing a lot of depth in character.

Taste  This is like drinking dark chocolate coca powder. It is so dark and so chocolaty, its unbelievable. This one definitely lives up to its name.

The malts are equally as mature, complimented at the tongue with some nice fruiting that I failed to pick out at the nose. I particularly enjoy the prune and cherry mix that Im getting here.

Mouthfeel  This was not full in the mouth, but it was very big with an amazing smoothness. It will most assuredly pucker your mouth with the bitter dark chocolate character.

Drinkability  I thought about eating a Hersheys with this just for kicks, but decided to enjoy the flavors all on their own. This was incredible.

Comments  A big thanks to OldFrothingSlosh who sent me this just for the hell of it after we did a previous trade. This was an enjoyable and very unique experience for me, and I greatly appreciate the gesture.

The Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout is an incredible beer. Here are the details.

Appearance: This stout was black with ever so slight tinges of red on the bottom of the glass. Some brown but not much. Almost pure black. There was no head on this beer and like most stouts, when you look at it from the top it looks like an espresso. There was great lacing on this beer that reminded me of swirling a wine glass.

Aroma: The aroma was wonderful. I got a nice roasted chocolate scent mixed with deep-roasted coffee. I could pick up the malt also and some nuttiness. This beer had a slight swaf of sweetness. And whoa, I could smell the 10.1% ABV on this beer.

Taste: Wow. This beer has a fantastic taste. Though this is a chocolate stout, I picked up the deep-roasted coffee first. However, as I swallow a nice cocoa flavor coates the pallete. The chocolate is not a sweet chocolate but a semi-sweet cocoa. The coffee and chocolate are very well balanced with one not overpowering the other. The beer finishes with a hint of bitterness but it's the perfect amount. This beer blends everything together in perfect harmony. This is a full-body beer with a creamy mouth feel. This beer is dangerously easy to drink at 10.1% (which is a compliment).

Overall: What a wonderful beer. I enjoy stouts and this is likely one of the best stouts I've had. (1,352 characters)

Vintage 04-05 bottling, thanks to Jeff. This baby is somewhere between 8 and 9 years old - let's see how it has held up. It pours dark as hell - black with only a slight bit of dark brown showing at the very edges. No head, literally none, even with a straight down pour. I guess that's what almost ten years in a bottle will do to you, eh? Very still and menacing in the glass, seemingly void of any carbonation.

The first glace, Black Chocolate Stout is a bit more pungent on the nostrils than I was expecting, and it actually contains a strong, almost boozy character. It's like rich, dark chocolate dipped in a booze bath. Lots of cocoa on the nose - some milky, some darker, with a touch of roasted malts on the side. Not getting much coffee and hops are probably long gone at this point.

So far, this doesn't smell so much like a Russian Imperial Stout as it does an American Imperial Stout, but maybe I'm just splitting hairs. Unfortunately some oxidation has gotten the best of this beer - or at least the aroma would tell me that. It invokes a slight sherry character, perhaps lending to the booziness, but it also has the slight smell of wet cardboard, slightly musty and stale. Hopefully it doesn't affect the taste too much.

Leading the charge of the first sip is a mound of smooth, sweet chocolate and a solid offering of boozy, dark fruit sweetness - figs, anise, and the darkest dates around. The roasty character takes a bit of a backseat, and oxidation is present from the middle to the end, again introducing both a mild sherry flavor and a bit of the "stale, wet cardboard" that is especially heavy in the aftertaste. Some sweet and dark chocolates help to balance this out, but I can't help but wonder how much better this beer would be fresh. Without carbonation, the mouth feel is pretty silky and smooth; full-bodied and pretty heavy.

It seems like this beer would age well if you could keep it from oxidizing. Hell, even slowing the oxidation down wouldn't be so bad. It was just a little too much, here, but the beer that lies underneath the oxidation seemed to be doing fine. I'd like to have this one again, fresh, just to compare. Very good stout, although there are plenty out there that I'd choose over this one. (2,247 characters)

Presentation: 355 ml bottle with freshness date printed on the bottle (best before December 2011).

Appearance: The pour is black, just one step away from being opaque, with a surprisingly small (half a finger) light brown head that settles quickly and leaves basically no lacings.

Smell: Mostly dark chocolate. Although it has less sweet aromas than many other imperial stouts, there are still some notes of blackcurrants and faint vanilla here. Gentle hops and a good deal of roasted barley finish things off.

Taste: Big flavors of dark chocolate hit the palate and stays on right to the very end of the finish. The chocolate flavors are definitely on the bitter end, leaning towards cocoa, but every now and then notes of sweeter chocolate appear as well. The taste of roasted barley is also quite immense and it blends beautifully with the chocolate. Some fruity flavors (plums?) and maybe some vanilla are to be found as well, somewhere among the chocolate and roasted barley. But still, the sweetness in this one is really restrained. From a few sips, I get a slight acidic flavor, but this might be the bitterness from the chocolate and the roasted grain that's playing a trick on me. The alcohol, although well hidden, provides a pleasant twang before the finish, which is quite bitter and contains some restrained, yet distinct, hops and long roasted flavors. Not the most complex imperial stout, but still a delightful beer with it's astonishing chocolaty character.

Mouthfeel: Quite a lot of carbonation considering the style, but thanks to a full body it manages to come out rather smooth.

Drinkability: I've had this beer quite a few times, and I'm always amazed by the fact that it's made solely from malt, hops, water and yeast, and no chocolate additives. How one can make ingredients such as these to taste this good is quite astonishing. However, although it's a rather bold and edgy imperial stout with it's emphasis primarily on chocolate and roasted flavors, it still lacks some complexity. But it's still, highly highly recommended. (2,124 characters)

This beer is possibly the best "bottled" beer from Brooklyn - I think we all know that the non-contract draft beer coming out of the brewery is much better! This beer pours a very dark brown/black with ruby highlights. There's a nice, light tan/brown head around the rim of the glass, although no Belgian-lace is produced. The aroma is of a bittersweet chocolate and candyish malt, but without hops, which is OK for the style.

The flavor starts with alot of chocolate and roastiness followed by a clear alcohol, a bit of hop flavor, and eventually mellowing into very nice coffee notes. The finish stays on the pallet a bit and is somewhat sharp. The carbonation level is appropriate and the body is nice. There are no off-notes to speak of. Overall, a nice example of the style. (781 characters)

s: sweet and malty. smells lightly roasted, with hints of smoke and even peet.

t: first hit is the malt and sugar up front, which turns into toasted/roasted malt on the way back, and finishes with a tiny hop profile and grit of bakers chocolate and espresso. really nice progression from sweet, to bittersweet, to dry. a nice finish on the beer which continues to taste and evolve after the swallow. alchohol is nowhere to be found even at 8.5%.

m: mouthfeel is almost great. I wouldnt mind however if it where a little heavier, a little more viscous. as it is nice syrup aspects balanced well with the carbonation.

d: very filling, and the bold flavors dont leave the palate capable of much else, including another one. though since thats all Im looking for, and how I feel a stout like this should be....its all good to me. (969 characters)

Had it in a bottle and it pours slighlty less thick than syrup. It retains a dark-as-midnight color with a half-inch caramel head, which gives off a strong chocolate malt smell. After sticking my nose over the glass, I got a strong impression of coffee ice cream.
Drinkability was slow, as the alcohol hit me pretty quickly, and the beer was mighty thick. Cold, it tasted like bitter hops. As it warmed up, the lactose kicked in, but retained a strong bitterness. Most milky stouts I've had come off too sweet, but this one was like dark chocolate: thick, bitter, and black. Once fully room temperature, I could detect more sweetness, but overall, it was like a dark chocolate milkshake. Very enjoyable, and the taste of it lingers pleasantly on the tongue well after drinking it. (782 characters)

Poured jet black and very viscous. Very little head retention and minimal lacy but still looks good. Smell of bitter chocolate and a faint smokey/coffee flavor. Taste is really fantastic. Taste is roast, dark chocolate right up front. It coats your mouth like a mik stout but doesn't have that overriding sweetness. As it warms, some type of fruitness is in there as well. Reminded me of dates that aren't overly sweet. Really nice touch. Lots of flavor but still very clean. A litte bit of fizzy carbonation that threw off some of the smoothness flavor. The alcohol starts to bite a little more at the end but in a pleasurable way. This is a treat! (690 characters)